Integrated handle for a mattress assembly

ABSTRACT

Mattress assemblies include integrated handles, wherein the integrated handles are formed in the border panel about the mattress perimeter from excess material thereof.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 63/356,669 filed on Jun. 29, 2022, incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

The present disclosure generally relates to mattress assemblies, and more particularly, to integrated handles for mattress assemblies.

From time-to-time, consumers are required to lift and move heavy mattresses either to clean, change a foundation component or change its location. To enable such tasks, mattresses are generally equipped with handles. For example, mattresses often come with string/cord handles that are physically to the side regions, i.e., border panels, of the mattress, usually around the center, or at the ends/corners of the mattress. Even though these attached handles are commonplace in mattresses and other furniture, and seem to work well, they suffer from several drawbacks. Physically attached handles generally need a complex assembly process that can be costly and time-consuming. The handles are typically affixed tightly to the mattress or on the underside to camouflage them and make the mattress more visually appealing. However, this technique limits the handle's adjustability and can potentially be injurious to the person moving the mattress, or cause tears and/or forming points of failure in the underlying surface. Moreover, affixing them tightly to the mattress does not always camouflage them and consequently these handles may still have an unsightly appearance.

BRIEF SUMMARY

Disclosed herein are mattress assemblies including integrated handles. In one or more embodiments, the mattress assemblies include an interior region encapsulated with a cover, wherein the cover comprises a top panel, a bottom panel, and a border panel extending between the top and bottom panels. The border panel includes a fabric material having a length that exceeds a perimeter of the mattress assembly to define an excess portion. The excess portion of the fabric material is folded over to form a first pleat in the border panel, wherein perimeter edges associated with the border panel are attached to corresponding edges of the top and bottom panels to snugly fit the border panel about a perimeter of the interior region and define at least one integrated pocket including an open end and a closed end defined by the first pleat.

The disclosure may be understood more readily by reference to the following detailed description of the various features of the disclosure and the examples included therein.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

Referring now to the figures wherein the like elements are numbered alike:

FIG. 1 illustrates a perspective view of a mattress assembly including an integrated handle in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 illustrates a perspective view of a portion of a border panel for a mattress assembly including an integrated handle in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 illustrates a perspective view of a portion of a border panel for a mattress assembly including an integrated handle in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 4 illustrates a top-down view of a mattress assembly including an integrated handle in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Disclosed herein are mattress assemblies including integrated handles formed in a border panel fabric material defining the mattress border. The integrated handle in the mattress border includes a pocket defined by excess border material that is pleated and can be accessed by an end user to lift the mattress assembly. The mattress assemblies themselves with the integrated handles are not intended to be limited and can include mattress assemblies formed of foam, bladders, coil springs, and various combinations thereof generally known in the art. Moreover, the mattress assemblies may be a mattress of any size, including standard sizes such as a twin, queen, oversized queen, king, or California king sized mattress, as well as custom or non-standard sizes constructed to accommodate a particular user or a particular room. Still further, the mattress assemblies can be configured as one-sided or two-sided mattresses depending on the configuration and the desired application.

In one embodiment, the process for fabricating the mattress assemblies including the integrated handle includes formation of first and second pleats spaced apart from one another using an excess amount of sidewall border material during assembly to define the one or more pockets along one or more selected sidewalls of the mattress assembly. For convenience with balancing the load of the mattress assembly, a single pleated integrated handle along opposing sidewalls can be formed and centrally provided along a longitudinal length of the particular sidewall. In contrast, multiple pleated integrated handles along a particular sidewall can be spaced apart from one another. However, it should be apparent that the locations of the pocket(s) defined by the pleated excess border material are not intended to be limited and can be provided at any location along any particular mattress sidewall, e.g., at the head end, foot end, and/or lateral sides extending from the head and foot ends. As used herein, the term “pleat” generally means the border material can be folded over itself and secured to the top and bottom cover panels to create the pleat. To create the pocket, one pleat is formed by folding the excess border material in a first direction and the second pleat, which is spaced apart from the first pleat, is formed by folding the pleat in a second opposite direction as will be described in greater detail below. The pleats are defined by attachment of a portion of the excess border material to the top and bottom panels along a length of the top and bottom panels or be spaced apart depending on the desired configuration of the pocket.

Various embodiments of the present invention are described herein with reference to the related drawings. Alternative embodiments can be devised without departing from the scope of this invention. For the sake of brevity, conventional techniques related to mattress assembly fabrication may or may not be described in detail herein. Moreover, the various tasks and process steps described herein can be incorporated into a more comprehensive procedure or process having additional steps or functionality not described in detail herein. In particular, various steps in the manufacture of mattress assemblies are well known and so, in the interest of brevity, many conventional steps will only be mentioned briefly herein or will be omitted entirely without providing the well-known process details.

Although various connections and positional relationships (e.g., over, below, adjacent, etc.) are set forth between elements in the following description and in the drawings, persons skilled in the art will recognize that many of the positional relationships described herein are orientation-independent when the described functionality is maintained even though the orientation is changed. These connections and/or positional relationships, unless specified otherwise, can be direct or indirect, and the present invention is not intended to be limiting in this respect. Similarly, the term “coupled” and variations thereof describes having a communications path between two elements and does not imply a direct connection between the elements with no intervening elements/connections between them. All of these variations are considered a part of the specification. Accordingly, a coupling of entities can refer to either a direct or an indirect coupling, and a positional relationship between entities can be a direct or indirect positional relationship. As an example of an indirect positional relationship, references in the present description to forming layer “A” over layer “B” include situations in which one or more intermediate layers (e.g., layer “C”) is between layer “A” and layer “B” as long as the relevant characteristics and functionalities of layer “A” and layer “B” are not substantially changed by the intermediate layer(s).

The following definitions and abbreviations are to be used for the interpretation of the claims and the specification. As used herein, the terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “includes,” “including,” “has,” “having,” “contains” or “containing,” or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion. For example, a composition, a mixture, process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements is not necessarily limited to only those elements but can include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such composition, mixture, process, method, article, or apparatus.

Additionally, the term “exemplary” is used herein to mean “serving as an example, instance or illustration.” Any embodiment or design described herein as “exemplary” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments or designs. The terms “at least one” and “one or more” are understood to include any integer number greater than or equal to one, i.e., one, two, three, four, etc. The terms “a plurality” are understood to include any integer number greater than or equal to two, i.e., two, three, four, five, etc. The term “connection” can include an indirect “connection” and a direct “connection.”

References in the specification to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” “an example embodiment,” etc., indicate that the embodiment described can include a particular feature, structure, or characteristic, but every embodiment may or may not include the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover, such phrases are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment. Further, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic is described in connection with an embodiment, it is submitted that it is within the knowledge of one skilled in the art to affect such feature, structure, or characteristic in connection with other embodiments whether or not explicitly described.

For purposes of the description hereinafter, the terms “upper,” “lower,” “right,” “left,” “vertical,” “horizontal,” “top,” “bottom,” and derivatives thereof shall relate to the described structures and methods, as oriented in the drawing figures. The terms “overlying,” “atop,” “on top,” “positioned on” or “positioned atop” mean that a first element, such as a first structure, is present on a second element, such as a second structure, wherein intervening elements such as an interface structure can be present between the first element and the second element. The term “direct contact” means that a first element, such as a first structure, and a second element, such as a second structure, are connected without any intermediary conducting, insulating or semiconductor layers at the interface of the two elements.

Spatially relative terms, e.g., “beneath,” “below,” “lower,” “above,” “upper,” and the like, can be used herein for ease of description to describe one element or feature's relationship to another element(s) or feature(s) as illustrated in the figures. It will be understood that the spatially relative terms are intended to encompass different orientations of the device in use or operation in addition to the orientation depicted in the figures. For example, if the device in the figures is turned over, elements described as “below” or “beneath” other elements or features would then be oriented “above” the other elements or features. Thus, the term “below” can encompass both an orientation of above and below. The device can be otherwise oriented (rotated 90 degrees or at other orientations) and the spatially relative descriptors used herein interpreted accordingly.

The terms “about,” “substantially,” “approximately,” and variations thereof, are intended to include the degree of error associated with measurement of the particular quantity based upon the equipment available at the time of filing the application. For example, “about” can include a range of ±8% or 5%, or 2% of a given value.

Turning now to FIGS. 1-3 , there is depicted an exemplary mattress assembly 10 and including an integrated handle 20 in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. The mattress assembly 10 is generally defined by a head end 12, a foot end 14 and sidewalls 16, 18 extending from the head end to the foot end. The mattress assembly 10 includes a cover 30 that encapsulates an interior region (not shown) of the mattress in its entirety, wherein the interior region can include one or more layers of foam, bladders, coil springs, and/or various combinations thereof generally known in the art. The cover 30 generally includes a top panel 32, a bottom panel 34, and a border panel 36 extending between the top and bottom panels 32, 34 about a perimeter of the mattress assembly. The border panel 36 is generally representative of a mattress height and is typically formed of a single continuous fabric material that is sewn at seams to the top and bottom panels 32, 34, respectively.

In typical mattress constructions, the border panel has a length that extends about a perimeter of the mattress assembly and has a length sufficient to cover and snugly fit against the entire perimeter of the mattress assembly interior region. The typical border panel includes a perimeter edge that is attached, e.g., sewn, to the top and bottom panels 32, 34 along is entire length. In the present disclosure, the border panel 36 is selected to have a length greater than the perimeter of the mattress assembly interior region, wherein the excess amount of the fabric material is utilized to form the integrated handle 20 within the border panel 36. As shown more clearly in FIG. 2 , the excess fabric material of the border panel 36 is folded upon itself to form pleats 40, which can be used to create pockets of excess material on each lateral side configured to accommodate a user's hand, for example, so that the mattress assembly can be easily picked up and/or moved. In one or more embodiments, the pleats 40 can be substantially vertically oriented relative to the horizontally oriented planar surfaces of the top and bottom panels, 32, 34. As shown more clearly in FIG. 3 , the portions 42 of the border material 36 that are folded upon itself can be secured such as by stitching to the respective edge of the top and bottom border panels as indicted by stitch lines 44, which forms the pockets for the integrated handle.

In FIG. 4 , a top-down view is shown of the mattress assembly including the integrated handle formed within a portion of the border panel 36 is shown. The pleats 40 can abut one another (not shown) so that the border panel is snugly fit about substantially all of the mattress assembly or can be spaced apart as is generally shown.

The amount of excess fabric material to form the pockets is generally not limited although too little can affect the pocket size and too much may affect aesthetics, and bunching of the fabric. In one or more embodiments, the pocket can be a single pocket centrally located along a selected one of the sidewalls, e.g., the head end the foot end, lateral sidewalls, and combinations thereof or can include multiple pockets spaced apart from one another.

Advantageously, the integrated handle reduces assembly cost by its simplicity since marginal additional materials are needed, which are offset by lack of attached handles and the scrap associated with the attachment as well as the elimination of the process of attaching a separate handle as is currently done in the art, which increases manufacturing time. The integrated handles are believed to be stronger that physically attached handles and the pockets formed therein are easily utilized when needed.

This written description uses examples to disclose the invention, including the best mode, and also to enable any person skilled in the art to make and use the invention. The patentable scope of the invention is defined by the claims, and may include other examples that occur to those skilled in the art. Such other examples are intended to be within the scope of the claims if they have structural elements that do not differ from the literal language of the claims, or if they include equivalent structural elements with insubstantial differences from the literal languages of the claims. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A mattress assembly, comprising: an interior region encapsulated with a cover, wherein the cover comprises a top panel, a bottom panel, and a border panel extending between the top and bottom panels, wherein the border panel comprises a fabric material having a length that exceeds a perimeter of the mattress assembly to define an excess portion, wherein the excess portion of the fabric material is folded over to form a first pleat, wherein perimeter edges associated with the border panel are attached to corresponding edges of the top and bottom panels to snugly fit the border panel about a perimeter of the interior region and define at least one integrated pocket including an open end and a closed end defined by the first pleat.
 2. The mattress assembly of claim 1, wherein the excess portion is folded over in two spaced apart locations to form the first pleat and a second pleat, wherein the perimeter edges associated with the border material are attached to corresponding edges of the top and bottom panels to snugly fit the border panel about the perimeter of the interior region and define at least two integrated pockets.
 3. The mattress assembly of claim 1, wherein the interior region comprises foam, spring coils, air bladders, or a combination thereof.
 4. The mattress assembly of claim 1, wherein the first and second pleats are abut one another.
 5. The mattress assembly of claim 1 further comprising multiple pockets along one or more selected sidewalls of the mattress assembly.
 6. The mattress assembly of claim 1, wherein the at least one integrated pocket is centrally located along a sidewall.
 7. The mattress assembly of claim 1, wherein the top and bottom panels define horizontally oriented planar surfaces when in use, and wherein the first and second pleats are substantially vertically oriented with respect to the horizontally oriented planar surfaces. 